If you love violence, you’re in luck. Compelling drama? Maybe not so much…
It’s hard out there for Punisher fans.
Despite having numerous attempts at lifting the ultra-violent character from the pages of a graphic novel, the end products have all had their issues.
On the big screen, you’ve had the likes of Dolph Lundgren, Thomas Jane and Ray Stevenson take a crack at Frank Castle, with alright, not bad and batshit crazy results, respectively.
All three actors were let down by scripts that either undersold, tweaked or went almost too far in the other direction where Castle was concerned.
For fans who just want to see the guy destroy villains, War Zone seems to be the most popular, even if you can’t exactly label it a traditionally good movie.
That, or the PlayStation 2 game, but even that enterprise was marred by weirdly chaste censorship when it came to Frank doling out the highest punishment imaginable.
In any case, there is more to the character than mindless bloodletting, something that actor Jon Bernthal has done his best to try and convey during his time in the role.
Having first appeared in Daredevil season two, Bernthal’s wounded Castle has mostly worked as a deeply broken, often animalistic figure whose demons often overcome him, resulting in a great deal of pain coming to the surface.
The first season of Netflix’s run of The Punisher wasn’t perfect by any means – pacing was a major issue, proving once again that these shows would be better served with 10 episodes over 13 – but it had enough compelling moments to warrant a recommend.
As for season two, which lands this Friday 18 January, early plot details sounded vaguely interesting, as does one of the key villains.
And then we got the trailer…
Clip via Netflix
…which provoked some fears regarding Jigsaw, whose appearance looks pretty good considering his intimate scrape with a fairground mirror at the end of season one, and where the character of Frank is going.
Given that Castle showed up pretty much fully formed as The Punisher in Daredevil only for his own season to strip all that back, they’d hardly do that again, would they?
Seems like that’s the road he’s going down, alright, if the first professional reviews are anything to go by, but there’s still much to appreciate about his sophomore effort.
The AV Club liken Punisher season two to a Jack Reacher novel as Frank is saddled with a young girl as a means of giving him a new family to care for.
Their write-up also indicates that it suffers from ‘difficult second season’ syndrome in that it walks back a lot of progress in favour of a fairly straightforward narrative that fails to do justice to its subject.
And though that aforementioned new antagonist gets time to shine, Billy Russo is apparently all over the story which only serves to re-tread old ground.
Still, action scenes are highlighted and one episode in particular – a riff on Assault on Precinct 13 – sounds very well-executed, but for the most part it’s a misstep.
“It’s a shame such a wild and impulsive character is likely going out on such an underwhelming note,” offers the review, highlighting a potential cancellation ala recent dismissals of Daredevil, Luke Cage and Iron Fist from Netflix.
Meanwhile, Collider’s review also shouts out the action – “some of the best you’ll see on TV this year or any other” – but argues that interesting drama is sacrificed as a consequence.
“Season two wants to have it both ways; it wants you to take in the costs of what it means to be a ruthless man of vengeance, but also wants to let you off as easy as its characters, putting aside the heavy questions in favour of pure, energetic spectacle, just a bit too left of reality to be taken seriously.”
Forbes go with the ‘more of the same, but that’s okay’ approach, while TV Guide also weigh in with the ‘too many episodes’ criticism, as well as a desire to move past the Frank/Billy plot.
Elsewhere, IGN says that the juice is worth the squeeze in terms of the patient approach, while Den of Geek hails “a big improvement” on season one.
The one thing everyone does seem to agree on, though, is that Bernthal is once again the only man for this job.
If Netflix does indeed get rid of The Punisher, you’d hope that whoever gets the rights will keep him in mind.
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